Samsung’s wireless earbuds have one big advantage over Apple’s AirPods

The folks at iFixit have performed a teardown of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds, and they’ve found at least one notable selling point over Apple’s AirPods: You can actually replace the batteries.

Opening up the Galaxy Buds requires only some basic prying tools and a screwdriver, and the battery inside is a CP1254 coin cell that you can find online. The Galaxy Buds’ charging case can also be pried apart, though it may be a while before anyone starts offering replacement batteries for the case.

By comparison, Apple’s AirPods and their charging case are held together with lots of adhesive, and cutting the devices open is the only way to get inside. Apple charges almost as much to repair a set of AirPods as it does to replace them outright, and as iFixit has noted, recycling isn’t cost effective due to the amount adhesive that needs to be removed first.

With reports already emerging about AirPods that no longer hold a charge, it may not be long before people start tossing their earbuds en masse, which won’t be a great look for a company that’s positioning itself as an environmental leader.